Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Mutiple Water Pump Failures.

My next step is to blow the car into tiny little pieces, so any help would be appreciated.

Since the first water pump disintegrated back in November and toasting my engine I've had to replace the new engines water pump 3 times. This morning will make 4 times. It happens pulling into the parking lot at work. Thank God. Each time the water pump is pouring out antifreeze throught the bottom seepage hole which means the seal is breaking. My guess is that there must be some remnants of the old water pump impeller stuck in the system and damaging the seal of each new water pump. The pieces must be in the radiator or the other hoses since the motor was replaced at a cost of $2K. The motor never over heats and doesn't seem to have any excess pressure. I took the over flow cap off after a hour drive home and to check for excessive pressure. The pressure seemed normal. This is a new motor with only 66,000 miles on it. The motor that burned up because of the first water pump disintegrating, blew my head gastets and resulted it an abnormal amount of pressure in the cooling system. Removing the overflow cap resulted in quite an amount of excessive pressure releasing. Has anyone else here had a similar experience? And how did you clean out your system. This is really pissing me off and this is most definitly the last Ford POS I will ever buy as much as I like my contour.

Frustrated Ford Owner
Dave

A professional flushing would be best,
but, also check to see if the pulley system or something isn't out of alignment. If that belt is pulling at an angle it'll pull the pump out a little and break a seal.

The pumps that keep failing aren't suffering broken impellers are they?

No,
The pumps seal is failing and the coolant is pouring out of the bottom seepage hole. I dropped the car off at the Ford Dealership. Since I bought the last water pump from them they will warrenty the pump and will charge me for labor only. If it happens again then they will warrenty the whole job, which right now is my primary concern. I'm tired of changing water pumps in the parking lot at work. It snowed today as well so I was pretty fed up with the whole stinkin mess.

Dave

Yikes, I know it sucks to change it.

I changed mine on a near freezing day too. Not hard, but not something you want to make a "career" of.

Good luck with the dealership. Hope that solves the problem!

Are you replacing the whole waterpump+housing or just the waterpump?

If you're just replacing the waterpump...my mechanic replaced the waterpump (only) twice. Each time it started leaking again after a week or so. The 3rd time, I told him to get the Motorcraft waterpump+housing assembly and use that (I paid the difference, as the waterpump+housing is more expensive than just the waterpump). No leaks, and that was about a year ago.

Brian,
That is exactly what I did as well. Just changed the water pump. Two water pumps from Advance auto and then the last one from Ford. Only I didn't put the whole assembly on just the water pump. Can see how that could make a difference but if it works that's great. Thats what the ford place did this time and I hope thats the last time. Thanks for posting your reply. Makes me feel a lot better about the car now but not about Ford in general any more.

Does anyone know why this is so? What is it about the housing that would make a difference? This is really strange. How about you guys that have replaced the stock ford plastic piece of crap water pump with a metal impeller? Any problems?

DaveNC

If the steel plate in the back of the housing is loose (it is cone shaped and "staked" in), it gets pulled into the pump impeller when the car is running. This damages can damge the impeller and put forces on the bearing that can cause seal failure or bearing failure.

By replacing the whole housing, you get a new cone, hopefully correctly staked in.